Mobile County Beekeepers Association says it's about more than honey and beeswax (with video)

(Press-Register/Victor Calhoun)Mobile County Bee Association hosts a live demonstration of beekeeping Saturday, April 17, 2010. Joe Shirley, Sr. shows the group how to remove honey from the comb. MOBILE, Ala. -- He keeps a turkey feather in his back pocket.

But amateur beekeeper Pete Byrd doesn't wear a veil, hat or even long sleeves.

He reaches into the hive, thousands of bees buzzing around him, with his bare hand.

All the clothing is too hot in the Alabama heat, he said.

Of course he has been stung, "but it don't hurt bad," he said.

Byrd is relatively new to the hobby, but he knows how to handle honeybees. The key is calm, said Joe Shirley, a member of the Mobile County Beekeepers Association.

"If you swat at it, that's a threat," Shirley said at a workshop Saturday in his backyard. "And you've got a problem."

Shirley, a beekeeper for 15 years, keeps perhaps millions of bees that produce honey and wax. He wears all the equipment, and uses a smoker to calm the bees before he opens the hives.

He unveiled the inner world of beekeeping -- an intense and, perhaps, profitable hobby -- opening his hives and explaining the significance of the insects.

Bees have two stomachs -- one for collecting nectar, one for pollen -- and will literally work themselves to death, Shirley said. When they can no longer fly, bees will try to crawl to pollen.

Byrd is relatively new to the hobby, having kept bees for about a year. Shirley said that introducing people to beekeeping is important to the circle of human life around the world.

"We need bees for our environment," Shirley said. "If we don't continue to help the bees, we will not have bees to pollinate the crops, and then we'll be in trouble, as far as food supplies for the world. It's critical that we do something to help the bee population to continue."

The group meets at 10 a.m. the second Saturday of every month at Wilmer Hall, 3811 Old Shell Road.

Nancy Brumfield and Cathy Sherrod of Chunchula said they attended the workshop to learn about the hobby, which they thought could be a way to help pollinate their gardens.